Organic Foods vs. Food Budget

I've been researching a lot about organic and sustainable farming. On the flip side I have also been reading about how to make it on a minimal food budget, of which I have experience. When you're on a budget, there really is no being choosy. Unemployment is at an all time high, not including many people not counted because they are not getting an unemployment check but not employed. On the flip side again, we are having to pay for things we never had to pay for before: satellite t.v., internet access, cell phones. Our quality of life in the kitchen has been on a decline, tragically.

We are constantly being bombarded through advertising that we need things to make our lives easier; that we can save time by buying premade, processed products - telling us that these things will make us feel better about ourselves.

There is a sense of urgency in the contradiction of low budget vs. consumer awareness in our food world: It is to find the balance. Make food quality a priority in our life while making it affordable? Realistically, good quality food is affordable; we are just not used to buying it and taking it home and preparing it and cooking it - because that sounds like a lot of work. Who wants to work, right? Wanting to use our kitchen as a place to make meals from whole foods is a challenge. Realising home cooking is not a chore and homemade meals are soul nourishing as well as healthy is worth the effort. Try going into your market and buying only whole foods; Only Whole Ingredients to make a meal. Just try it. Taste each ingredient as it is in its natural form before you begin to cook it with other ingredients. This is how it should be. And its easy and affordable. We just have to get used to it.

The fast food industry has taken over our grocery stores and farming industry. But there are things we can do - and it's our awareness of these other things that will bring us away from the corporate food world of 'instant gratification'. By learning to appreciate that good food takes time - to grow and to cook - we can do it. Once we can smell it and taste it and feel it in our soul. And know it came from our own kitchen.